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the Toronto Design Offsite Festival. Operating under the trade name DesignTO.
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2026

Festival Schedule

January 23 – February 1, 2026

DesignTO Festival isn’t just about events, it’s about making real change. Celebrating 16 years of impact, DesignTO brings people together to design a better future that’s sustainable, just, and joyful. As Canada’s largest annual design festival, the 10-day event features 100+ free events and exhibitions, both online and in-person, across Toronto. Most events and exhibitions are free, but some require an RSVP or purchased tickets. All window installations are viewable from the outdoors.

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'A Reflection in Time' explores continuity, blending heritage and innovation. The Colinas and Marola tile collections by VIUVA LAMEGO and REPUBLIC OF II BY IV dissolve spatial and temporal boundaries, where material becomes memory and reflection reveals discovery.
In-person
exhibition
A Reflection in Time
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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An exhibition of botanical drawings, large-scale interactive pieces, and wallpaper by Sève Favre on the allure of invasive plants. In a dystopian future, these super-alien vegetal forms take over cities, becoming the center of cultural, social, and economic life.
In-person
exhibition
A STRANGE BEAUTY
Jan 22
–
Feb 06 2026
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Abajour is a project of lamps created from discarded glass vases left on sidewalks. Their beauty inspired artist Valentin Van Ravestyn to transform them into lamps using 3D-printed mesh shades, adaptive structures that frame each vase’s unique form, revealing its luminous character.
In-person
window installation
Abajour
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Air Assemblies' surveys Studio Rat’s inflatable, reclaimed plastics sculptures in an immersive installation proposing a new form of soft infrastructure that creatively responds to environmental challenges and material reuse.
In-person
exhibition
Air Assemblies
Jan 22
–
Feb 27 2026
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Explore illumination at the intersection of art, craft, sculpture, and design. 'ALL LIGHT', an immersive exhibition, features 10 Ontario-based artists and light designers, showcasing the creativity, materiality, and technical innovation of our local maker community.
In-person
exhibition
ALL LIGHT
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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Visit Studio Theatre for a panel discussion emerging from the research initiative Craft and the Digital Turn. The conversation will explore the intersection of contemporary craft and digital technologies. Focusing the themes of community, the economic dimensions of craft, and digital
In-person
event: Talk
An Evening of Craft, Digitality, and Critical Reflection
Jan 29 2026
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Join the TSA and the Arts & Letters Club for a trivia night on the intersection of art and architecture in Toronto!
In-person
event: Games
Art and Architecture Trivia Night
Jan 28 2026
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‘Articulated Hides’ explores the techniques of leathercrafting through sculptural form. Stitching, moulding, dyeing have all been done by hand to create a dynamic form across its space.
In-person
window installation
Articulated Hides
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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This exhibition showcases work in the form of textile samples on cloth bags, from a cooperative of textile artists who share studio space in downtown Toronto. Processes such as printing, stitching, embroidery, weaving and the repurposing of materials are included.
In-person
exhibition
Assembly Not Required 3.0: Current Practices from Members of the Contemporary Textile Studio Cooperative
Jan 23
–
Feb 15 2026
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Join Cowley Abbott for a relaxed breakfast preview on January 24th to highlight artworks from our January online auctions. Enjoy coffee, conversation, and wide range of historical and contemporary artworks, perfect for design lovers and art collectors alike.
Hybrid
exhibition
Auction Preview Breakfast
Jan 23
–
Jan 30 2026
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In this workshop, Laura Carwardine will guide you through the process of stitching her Bacon Magnet 3D Embroidery Kit. Enjoy a comfortable social afternoon at the Drake Hotel as you’re stitching and learn about the tactile joys of embroidery.
In-person
event: Workshop
Bacon Embroidery Workshop
Jan 31 2026
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BE/HEALING reflects allowing one’s stillness to allow for the deepest forms of healing. Screen-printed images of intimate moments are paired with the large viynl poetry, inviting reflection and contemplation. Within the gallery, you will find additional screen-printed fabric books.
In-person
window installation
BE/HEALING
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Beneath One Sky' is an installation by Asli Alin featuring suspended, cloud-like forms made from colourful, translucent mesh. Each shape is unique, yet connected through layering and spatial dialogue, creating an immersive overhead environment.
In-person
exhibition
Beneath One Sky
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Beyond the Surface: Wallpaper in the Digital Age' explores wallpaper as a dynamic art form, merging traditional patterns with contemporary digital techniques. Experience its evolution from background to canvas, celebrating its rich history and envisioning its future in modern design.
Online
exhibition
Beyond the Surface: Wallpaper in the Digital Age
Oct 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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An opportunity for students to engage in conversations with members of the design community while refining their interview, portfolio building and communication skills. Strategies and advice will be shared by all participants to gear students towards design excellence and enrichment.
In-person
event: Workshop
BIPOC Portfolio Collaboration Event 2026
Jan 29 2026
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What does it mean to live in kinship with a river or creek? Through a combination of architecture and art installation, this exhibition invites visitors to engage with Toronto’s hidden waterways, encouraging us to consider rivers as relational beings.
In-person
exhibition
Bodies Of Water
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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The “Chalk Line” serves as the guiding spine for this project: a minimal gesture that defines form, movement, and spatial perception. It explores light in human experience, and how it shapes mood, health, and the experience of both public and intimate spaces.
In-person
window installation
Chalk Line
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Close Your Eyes, Heal In A Parallel World' explores the connection between the human spirit and nature through 3D paintings and steel sculptures, inviting viewers into a meditative space of renewal, resilience, and quiet transformation.
In-person
exhibition
Close Your Eyes, Heal In A Parallel World
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Connections' is an immersive installation that encourages us to think about the spaces between one another, physically and metaphorically. We may be strangers, but with mindfulness and reflection we can share a common space of belonging.
In-person
exhibition
Connections
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Contemporary Textile Art x Contemporary Design' textile art exhibition enters the new Minimal Toronto showroom, where life and style harmonize through art and design. Experience how textile art blurs boundaries of art, craft and design, to create unique living.
In-person
exhibition
Contemporary Textile Art x Contemporary Design
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2025
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Paula Hartmann's 'Dancing Blossoms' is a kinetic installation composed of delicate paper mobiles. Inspired by the soft, fleeting rhythms of nature, this work invites viewers to pause, breathe, witness the beauty of impermanence, and embrace the renewal.
In-person
exhibition
Dancing Blossoms
Jan 23
–
Jan 24 2026
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This workshop promotes learning and making for speculative design and ideal AI futures. Participants will develop brainstorming and low fidelity prototyping skills (storyboarding, paper prototyping etc), develop computational thinking and experiment with electronic prototyping to build their own inventions.
In-person
event: Workshop
Democratizing AI Futures Through Community Centred Design
Jan 27 2026
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Tour Eventscape’s offices, R&D Fab Lab, and custom manufacturing facilities for a look behind the scenes. Learn how Eventscape, an award-winning architectural fabrication company works with the latest technologies, machinery and materials to create custom features.
In-person
event: Tour
Design + Fabrication Shop Tours
Jan 27
–
Jan 28 2026
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Join us for the official 2026 DesignTO Launch Party at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, as we kick off our 16th Festival and celebrate DesignTO’s legacy of showcasing and sparking vital conversations about design’s role in shaping a better world.
In-person
event: Party
DesignTO Launch Party 2026
Jan 23 2026
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‘Within the Weave’ is a conversation tracing the meeting points of material and memory. This panel will bring together artists who explore how fragments of personal and environmental histories can be gathered and transformed into new, interconnected wholes.
In-person
event: Talk
DesignTO Talks: Within the Weave
Feb 01 2026
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‘DesignTO Tours: hollis+morris’ provides two opportunities to take a deep dive into the 14,000 square foot Toronto production studio of hollis+morris, where furniture and lighting are designed, prototyped, manufactured and showcased on-site.
In-person
event: Tour
DesignTO Tours: hollis+morris
Jan 28 2026
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This walking tour invites you to explore artworks that reflect ongoing dialogues between artist, object, and environment. Moving through the neighbourhood, you’ll encounter works that have been added to and layered over time, highlighting how material practice becomes a vessel for memory, care, and interconnection.
In-person
event: Tour
DesignTO Tours: Material Memory
Jan 25 2026
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'Dollhouse/Architectural Model' is an installation at Lightform by Rachael Wong involving form, colour, and space. It playfully contemplates and confuses titles and assumptions, outside and inside, domestic and commercial. Scale and pattern investigate these ideas through material, perception, and place.
In-person
window installation
Dollhouse/ Architectural Model
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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'Domus Nexus' explores what home means through an immersive installation of a physical house that encourages interactivity, exploration, and discovery. The exhibition is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between six Humber Polytechnic students and two creative producers.
In-person
exhibition
Domus Nexus
Jan 07
–
Feb 01 2026
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This piece blends together two artists' interests in Newfoundland’s architecture and landscape to produce a custom art piece comprised of 27 mirrors; the mirrors are adorned with floral wallpapers, traditional paint colours, and symbols used in the decoration of vernacular buildings.
In-person
exhibition
Drawed’ Through
Jan 23
–
Feb 01 2026
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